Global Pulse

标签： Asia

亚洲

  • Japan says that China has detained 2 of its citizens suspected of smuggling banned items

    Japan says that China has detained 2 of its citizens suspected of smuggling banned items

    TOKYO – New developments in a cross-border legal case have added another layer of tension to already frayed relations between China and Japan, after Japanese government officials confirmed Wednesday that Chinese authorities have taken two Japanese citizens into custody on suspicion of smuggling prohibited import and export goods. Multiple sources indicate the case centers on rare earths — the strategically critical industrial materials whose global supply chain is overwhelmingly dominated by Beijing.

    Japan’s top government spokesperson, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, told reporters in Tokyo that Chinese customs officials notified Japanese consular missions in the northeastern Chinese cities of Shenyang and Dalian of the detentions. The first individual was taken into custody on May 18, with the second apprehended one week later as part of the same investigation, Kihara confirmed. While Kihara stated that both detained Japanese nationals are reported to be in good health, he declined to disclose additional personal information about the pair or further details of the ongoing probe, citing protections for personal privacy and the active status of the investigation.

    In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun has formally confirmed the detentions, confirming that the two men are held on suspicion of violating Chinese national laws. Guo offered no specific information on the nature of the prohibited items involved, but urged the Japanese government to take steps to educate and remind all Japanese citizens and companies operating within Chinese borders of the requirement to comply fully with Chinese laws and regulations in all commercial and personal activities.

    Japan’s Kyodo News Agency, citing unnamed sources familiar with the case, has reported that the two detainees are employees of a major Japanese manufacturing firm, with one working at the company’s local Chinese subsidiary. The report added that the alleged smuggling attempt involves rare earth-related materials, whose unauthorized cross-border transport violates Chinese trade control regulations.

    This latest legal incident comes five months after Beijing implemented a formal ban on exports of certain dual-use goods — materials that can be repurposed for both civilian and military applications — to Japan. While Chinese authorities have stressed that the new export controls do not disrupt legitimate commercial trade, official trade data has already recorded a measurable drop in Chinese exports of rare earth magnets to Japan since the policy took effect.

    Bilateral relations between the two major Asia-Pacific economies have been under growing strain for months. The most significant rift opened late last year, when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi broke with decades of Japanese strategic ambiguity on the Taiwan issue, suggesting that a Chinese military move against the self-governing island of Taiwan — which Beijing claims as an inalienable part of its territory — would justify a Japanese military response. This incident was not the only source of tension in recent years; last year, a Japanese national detained in China since March 2023 was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on charges of espionage, further eroding trust between the two governments.

    Associated Press correspondent Ken Moritsugu contributed reporting from Beijing for this article.

  • Premier says China’s tech advancements an ‘opportunity’ for the world, not a threat

    Premier says China’s tech advancements an ‘opportunity’ for the world, not a threat

    DALIAN, China — Addressing global business and policy leaders at the opening of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions, widely known as the “Summer Davos,” Chinese Premier Li Qiang pushed back against rising Western criticism of China’s rapid high-tech expansion on Wednesday, reframing the nation’s technological progress as a shared global benefit rather than a disruptive threat.

    In recent months, policymakers across the United States and Europe have grown increasingly vocal about what they frame as unfair competitive advantages held by Chinese high-tech sectors, from artificial intelligence and semiconductors to electric vehicles and renewable energy equipment. Many Western officials have pinned this advantage on large-scale Chinese state subsidies, arguing that the government financial support distorts global markets and undercuts foreign competitors. Even the 38-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development echoed this concern in a June report, noting that expansive state subsidies, including those provided by China, risk skewing global industry dynamics.

    Li directly refuted these claims during his plenary address. “There are some people who say that Chinese products are competitive mainly because the Chinese government’s subsidies. That’s not true. The Chinese government is not that wealthy,” he stated. Instead, the premier attributed China’s tech success to two core domestic strengths: the nation’s vast 1.4 billion-person consumer market, which allows companies to rapidly roll out and scale new technologies at mass volume, and the heavy, sustained private investment poured into research and development by Chinese enterprises.

    To illustrate his point, Li highlighted two major Chinese tech firms that have faced increasing Western restrictions: telecom giant Huawei and robotics manufacturer Unitree Robotics. Both companies have seen rapid growth in global market share despite facing punitive barriers from Western governments, including their placement on the U.S. Pentagon’s list of alleged military-linked Chinese companies that are barred from securing American defense contracts. Beijing has already issued formal opposition to the latest expansion of this blacklist, which added Unitree and other tech firms earlier this month.

    Beyond the subsidy debate, Li addressed growing global anxiety over what some analysts have dubbed “China Shock 2.0” — a narrative that frames China’s booming high-tech exports as a major threat to established advanced economies in North America and Europe. In a direct rebranding, Li argued the current era should instead be recognized as “China Opportunity 2.0.”

    “From the global development perspective, ‘China Opportunity 2.0’ means there’ll be broader access to advanced technologies and more widely shared benefits,” Li told the audience. He emphasized that China’s emerging technologies and competitively priced products, from EVs and solar panels to AI systems and industrial robots, do not deliver disruptive shocks to the global economy, but rather expand access and drive growth for partners worldwide. “China’s emerging technologies and products are bringing to the world not shocks, but opportunities,” he added. “Not threats, but empowerment.”

    The debate over China’s high-tech expansion comes as multiple Western governments have moved to implement protectionist trade measures targeting Chinese tech and clean energy exports, citing concerns over oversupply and unfair competition. The Summer Davos gathering in Dalian, which draws global business leaders and policymakers each year, provided a high-profile platform for China’s top economic official to lay out the country’s position amid rising geopolitical and trade tensions.

    Associated Press video producer Wayne Zhang in Beijing contributed reporting to this article.

  • French woman allegedly held captive by husband for 12 years rescued in Pakistan

    French woman allegedly held captive by husband for 12 years rescued in Pakistan

    A dramatic rescue operation by Pakistani law enforcement has freed a 54-year-old French national and her five children from more than a decade of ongoing abuse and captivity at the hands of the woman’s husband, authorities confirmed this week.

    Local police officials shared details of the case with BBC Urdu, outlining how the ordeal began back in 2014, when Sylvie Yasmina and her family relocated from Australia to the remote mountain town of Bara, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. According to Yasmina’s formal statements to investigators, her Pakistani husband had held the entire family confined against their will since the cross-country move, subjecting them to daily physical and psychological violence. For 11 years, Yasmina said she was completely cut off from any outside contact, with no ability to reach out to friends, family or French consular officials for help.

    The breakthrough in the case came when one of the couple’s older children managed to sneak out of the family’s residence undetected and file a formal complaint with local police. Acting on the tip, law enforcement officers launched a surprise raid on the property, where they made a harrowing discovery: Yasmina and all five of her children were being held in a cramped, severely run-down room, with visible bruising across their bodies from repeated assault.

    Investigators have confirmed that two of the children, who were born before the family moved to Pakistan, have missed more than a decade of formal education. The three younger children, all born in Pakistan after the 2014 move, were never enrolled in school at all, leaving them completely deprived of access to education.

    Following the rescue, Yasmina and her children were transferred to a secure women’s support shelter in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where they are receiving medical care and social support. Police have confirmed that the family plans to return to France to rebuild their lives after their years of captivity. Yasmina’s husband was taken into police custody immediately following the raid, though authorities have not yet released his public identity. Investigators also noted that he had been living illegally in Australia when he and Yasmina first met, and the pair married in 2003, residing in Australia for 11 years before relocating to Pakistan.

    In her statement to police, portions of which have been released by local media, Yasmina described the constant suffering her family endured. “We were deprived of our freedom. My husband didn’t take care of us the way he should as a husband and the father of my children. He beats us and put pressure on our lives on a daily basis,” she wrote. “I felt that my future was already ruined, the future of the children would also be ruined.”

  • Philippine devotees honor St. John the Baptist with a mud-covered display of faith

    Philippine devotees honor St. John the Baptist with a mud-covered display of faith

    On June 24, 2026, hundreds of devout Catholic worshippers gathered in the small rural village of Bibiclat, located in Nueva Ecija province in the northern Philippines, to carry out a centuries-old ritual of faith honoring St. John the Baptist. For the annual Taong Putik, or Mud People, festival, these devotees traded their ordinary clothes for a covering of thick soft mud scavenged from local rice paddies, followed by layers of dried banana leaves wrapped around their bodies, continuing a tradition that ties deeply personal piety to centuries of communal history.

    The tradition traces its origins back to the 1800s, rooted in humble beginnings shaped by historical hardship. Local church leaders record that poor 19th century farmers began the practice as an outward act of humility before God; the mud symbolized their connection to the land they worked, while the dried banana leaves allowed them to hide their identities, shielding themselves from widespread discrimination targeting low-income rural communities at the time.

    The devotion to St. John the Baptist grew dramatically in the decades following World War II, after a pivotal event that local residents still frame as divine intervention. According to the Rev. Elmer Villamayor, who led the Bibiclat parish between 2014 and 2021, a group of local men were set to be executed by Japanese occupying forces, when a sudden, heavy rainstorm halted the execution entirely, sparing their lives. Local worshippers widely interpreted this turn of events as a miracle granted by their patron saint, cementing the festival’s central role in the village’s spiritual life.

    Today, the festival carries on as a way for devotees to honor vows made in private prayer and give thanks for answered miracles and personal blessings. While no official attendance counts are maintained, Villamayor estimates that as many as 3,000 worshippers now participate each year, a number that has grown steadily in recent years as more people report personal blessings through their devotion.

    For many participants, the ritual is a multi-generational family tradition, passed down through generations after answered prayers. Melencio Nenuda, a 39-year-old construction worker, recalled that as a child the sight of mud-covered procession participants frightened him so much that he would hide when they passed through the village. That changed when he fell seriously ill in sixth grade: his mother prayed to St. John the Baptist, vowing that Nenuda would join the annual ritual if he recovered. Now, Nenuda returns every year, alongside his wife and son. “I will continue to go back to this tradition because it gives me a good future,” he explained.

    Forty-three-year-old Rickmar Castilio, who has participated in the festival for 20 consecutive years, brought his 11-year-old son Nathan for the first time in 2026, carrying out a vow he made years earlier. After Castilio lost his first child in infancy, he promised St. John the Baptist that he would return for the ritual every year if his next child survived. After his prayer was answered, he has kept his promise annually, and now aims to pass his devotion on to the next generation. “(I bring my child so) that he will get closer to St. John. The youth now are starting that path,” Castilio said. He added that he has observed a steady rise in participation in recent years, noting that growing numbers of worshippers are drawn to the tradition after experiencing personal miracles or seeing blessings in their own lives.

    The ritual follows a strict, familiar schedule that has remained unchanged for generations. Devotees begin their preparations before dawn, heading out to the surrounding rice fields around 4 a.m. to collect soft mud, which they smear across their entire bodies before wrapping themselves in dried banana leaves. Once fully prepared, they walk barefoot back to the village’s St. John the Baptist Church, carrying only lighted candles and their cellphones. As they wait for the start of the celebratory Mass, they gather to sing hymns around a small fire lit from the accumulated candle offerings.

    The Philippines is home to the largest Catholic population in Asia, and the Taong Putik festival remains one of the nation’s most distinctive examples of folk Catholicism, blending centuries of indigenous rural tradition with formal Catholic devotion. This report is from the Associated Press, with religious coverage supported through AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP holds sole responsibility for this content.

  • Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng calls for renewing friendship between the people of China and the US

    Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng calls for renewing friendship between the people of China and the US

    On June 19, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng gathered a diverse group of long-time and new American friends at the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. for a gathering centered on reconnecting and rebuilding grassroots bonds between the two nations. Attendees included figures from across different sectors of U.S.-China exchange: Ronald Sakolsky, a veteran supporter of China’s desertification control initiatives; Gail Chou, an educator who spent 12 years teaching in Luoyang, Henan Province; and Ryan Corkery and Angelie Melara, young participants in the “50,000 in five years” China-U.S. youth exchange program.

    Opening the gathering, Ambassador Xie highlighted the historic significance of the recent China-U.S. summit held in Beijing, noting that the meeting laid out a new shared vision for bilateral relations and opened a fresh chapter for people-centered friendly engagement between the two countries.

    “To deliver on the important consensus reached by our two presidents, and to renew the long-standing friendship between Chinese and American people, we must work together and step up with new collective contributions,” Xie told attendees. He offered three key guiding principles for advancing grassroots China-U.S. relations: prioritize small, concrete actions to turn high-level vision into tangible outcomes; encourage American friends who have experience in China to share their personal stories, helping more Americans understand the deep historical roots of people-to-people friendship between the two nations; and invest in nurturing a new generation of cross-cultural friendship envoys.

    “Let us act on the important consensus between the two presidents, and renew friendship between the people of China and the U.S.,” Xie concluded his call to action.

    Following the ambassador’s remarks, participating American guests shared their own deeply personal stories of connection to China, reflecting on the bonds that have shaped their perspectives and lives. Sakolsky spoke with evident affection as he recalled his decades of experiences traveling and working in China. “When I first visited China, all I wanted was to see the Terracotta Warriors, walk alongside the Yellow River and stand on the Great Wall — and truly live like a local Chinese person,” he said. “When I turned down a special treatment offer and chose to share a room with my Chinese colleagues on one trip, I knew I had truly become part of their community. I’m no celebrity; I’m just an ordinary teacher who wants to say thank you to China, and do whatever I can to give back out of gratitude.”

    Calling the gathering a meaningful reunion of friends connected by shared memories of China, Sakolsky added that he is committed to advancing a new era of people-to-people and youth exchanges between the two countries.

    Chou shared touching, intimate details of her 12 years living and working in China, saying “I feel homesick for China — it is my home away from home. The warmth and gratitude my Chinese students showed me will always stay with me, and never fail to touch my heart.”

    Corkery, the young exchange participant, echoed the theme of small connections overcoming deep divides. “It’s the little, everyday moments that make it clear: even with language and cultural differences, there are universal things that bring us together, and those are the things we should keep our focus on,” he said.

    Melara, another young participant who only spent 10 days in China as part of the exchange, noted that even her short stay reshaped her entire worldview. “It completely changed how I think about the world, and how I approach new ideas and different cultures,” she said.

  • Pages of friendship: Fresh insights into China from US teens

    Pages of friendship: Fresh insights into China from US teens

    When young American travelers cross continents to explore China, their personal travel notebooks become far more than just a log of sightseeing destinations—they turn into intimate, unvarnished chronicles of cross-cultural connection that challenge preexisting narratives about the world’s most populous country. A new feature published by China Daily on June 24, 2024, invites readers to step into the shoes of a group of U.S. high school travelers, flipping through their handwritten journal entries to encounter China through the curious, open-minded lens of global youth.

    Instead of relying on secondhand media narratives or political talking points, these teen travelers build their understanding of China through first-hand encounters: walking the winding stone battlements of the Great Wall, wandering through the imperial courtyards of the Forbidden City, striking up conversations with local peers who share their love of music, sports, or art, and discovering unexpected common ground that bridges geographical and cultural divides. Organized as part of broader youth exchange efforts, the project centers young voices to reframe the U.S.-China people-to-people connection, moving beyond polarized public discourse to highlight the human bonds that form when young people get to meet each other face to face.

    China Daily reporter Xia Ji guides readers through the collection of journal pages, pairing handwritten excerpts and personal reflections with on-the-ground context from the trip. What emerges from the pages is not a polished, official portrait of the country, but a raw, authentic collection of impressions: the awe of standing at the top of the Great Wall at sunrise, the joy of swapping social media handles with a new Chinese friend who loves the same K-pop group, the surprise of finding how many shared values and daily experiences cut through long-held stereotypes. Each entry adds a new layer of fresh, youthful insight that deviates from standard media coverage, offering a reminder that grassroots, youth-led exchange remains one of the most powerful tools for building mutual understanding between nations.

    This feature is part of China Daily’s broader 2025 “A Date with China” special coverage series, which focuses on elevating personal cross-cultural stories and people-to-people ties between China and the rest of the world. The series also includes other narratives of longstanding connection, from an American educator who has spent decades working with China’s deaf community to initiatives boosting economic and cultural cooperation between China and partner nations across the globe.

  • South Koreans expecting a home-game feel for World Cup group match against South Africa

    South Koreans expecting a home-game feel for World Cup group match against South Africa

    As South Korea prepares for its final Group A World Cup clash against South Africa in Monterrey, Mexico, head coach Hong Myung-bo says his side is set to receive an extraordinary boost: a raucous, home-field-style atmosphere built on years of cross-cultural football camaraderie. The warm welcome is no accident, tracing back to a historic 2018 World Cup upset that forged an unbreakable bond between fans of the two nations.

    When South Korea stunned defending champion Germany 2-0 four years ago, the result unexpectedly pushed Mexico through to the tournament’s knockout round. Overjoyed Mexican fans took to the streets outside South Korea’s Monterrey consulate, celebrating with a chant that has since become a symbol of the friendship: “Coreano, hermano, ya eres Mexicano” — “Korean brother, you are now Mexican.” That moment of gratitude has blossomed into sustained support for the South Korean national team during this co-hosted World Cup, which is being held across the United States, Mexico and Canada.

    Hong, who knows high-stakes World Cup football well as captain of South Korea’s iconic 2002 semifinal squad, says the outpouring of support from local fans is an unexpected gift for his players. After seeing Mexican fans turn out in force to back the Taeguk Warriors during their opening 2-1 victory over the Czech Republic in Guadalajara, Hong is expecting an equally enthusiastic crowd for Wednesday’s decisive match.

    “We may feel like this is our home ground tomorrow, and that is a very big gift to our players,” Hong said. “We will use that very well so we can play a good game tomorrow.”

    Beyond visiting traveling supporters, the Monterrey region already has deep ties to South Korea. Roughly 5,000 South Korean immigrants have settled in the area, most clustered in the Pesquería district just east of Monterrey National Airport. The community grew after South Korean automotive manufacturer KIA Motors opened a major local plant, drawing workers and businesses that strengthened economic and cultural links between the two countries. This tournament’s draw put all of South Korea’s group stage matches in Mexican host cities, cementing the team’s connection to the region ahead of the decisive clash.

    For visiting fans like Lee Ha-young, who traveled all the way from Seoul to support the team, the warmth of Mexican hospitality has already turned the country into a home away from home. While the two fan cultures differ — Mexican fans are far more outwardly expressive of their passion than the more reserved cultural norm in South Korea, Lee notes — shared love of the game has erased any divides.

    “Mexican fans have a lot of energy – more energy than us,” Lee said. “We have the same energy in our hearts, but it’s really hard to express because in Korean culture it’s not easy to express our feelings.”

    Lee added that many traveling South Korean supporters initially hoped the team would play at least one group stage match in the United States, where star Son Heung-min plays club football for LAFC. But the warm welcome from Mexican fans has changed all those expectations. “But the Mexican people have been really warm to us, so now I think tomorrow we will feel like home here in Monterrey,” she said.

    The stakes of Wednesday’s match could not be higher for both sides. Following a narrow 1-0 loss to host Mexico in their second group fixture, South Korea currently sits second in Group A with three points from two matches. South Africa and the Czech Republic are tied on one point apiece after playing out a 1-1 draw in their opening encounter. A win or even a draw will be enough for South Korea to lock in a spot in the knockout round, while South Africa must secure a full three points to guarantee it avoids elimination.

    If South Korea holds on to second place in the group, it will advance to a Round of 32 match in Los Angeles — a destination that would offer another comfortable, familiar setting for the team. The Los Angeles metro area is home to more than 300,000 Korean-Americans, who would likely turn out in force to support the national side. Still, for visiting fans like Lee, there’s something special about the welcome in Mexico that makes the experience unforgettable.

    “We might have to go to the U.S., for the round of 32,” Lee said. “But I don’t want to leave, I want to stay here in Mexico.”

  • Asian stocks are mixed after big tech sell-off

    Asian stocks are mixed after big tech sell-off

    HONG KONG – Global financial markets entered a new phase of volatility on Wednesday, as a broad sell-off of high-flying artificial intelligence-linked technology stocks that started on Wall Street spilled across Asian trading floors, leaving regional benchmarks mixed. The pullback comes after months of steep gains for tech and semiconductor shares in Japan and South Korea, driven by feverish investor enthusiasm around the global AI boom, making the sharp two-day decline a key test of market sentiment.

    U.S. stock futures also pointed to conflicting direction early Wednesday, as investors continued digesting the previous session’s losses on Wall Street. On Tuesday, the benchmark S&P 500 dropped 1.4%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite slid 2.2%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down a modest 0.1%. Leading the downward move were major U.S. tech and semiconductor names: memory chip giant Micron Technology plummeted 13.2%, while AI leader Nvidia shed more than 4.1% of its value.

    In South Korea, one of the markets most exposed to the AI chip supply chain, the benchmark Kospi index managed a slight 0.5% rebound to 8,241.23 on Wednesday, clawing back a small fraction of the 10% nosedive it took a day earlier. The recovery was uneven across the country’s top tech stocks: Samsung Electronics gained 3.7% a day after it plunged 12.3%, while another top blue chip, SK Hynix, continued to fall, dropping 3.6%.

    Japan’s Nikkei 225, which has surged to record highs this year fueled by AI-related gains, extended its losses for a second session, dropping 1.1% to 68,991.77, after falling 3.6% on Tuesday. Across other tech-heavy Asian benchmarks, Taiwan’s Taiex fell 2.5%, echoing the global pullback for AI-linked shares. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged up a marginal 0.1% to 23,364.72, while mainland China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 0.3% to 4,096.14. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 posted a small 0.1% gain to close at 8,797.00.

    Analysts note the sharp swings highlight how quickly volatility has risen for the tech stocks that have led global market gains this year. “This is an illustration of rising volatility” in AI-exposed equities, explained James Reilly, senior markets economist at Capital Economics. Reilly noted the volatility is particularly pronounced in South Korea, where domestic retail investors have taken on a growing share of trading activity in recent months. The pullback has sparked ongoing debate among market participants over whether the decline is merely a broad profit-taking exercise after months of gains, or a sign of shifting investor sentiment toward overvalued tech names.

    Beyond equities, global commodity markets also moved lower on Wednesday, with oil prices falling as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East eased slightly. More commercial vessels have resumed transits through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for global oil supplies, and diplomatic talks between the U.S. and Iran aimed at a permanent de-escalation of conflict have made progress, according to market observers.

    “Price movements suggest the market expects a fairly rapid recovery in Persian Gulf oil supplies,” ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a client note. They added that while vessel traffic through the strait has increased in recent days, volumes remain far below pre-conflict levels. International benchmark Brent crude fell 0.7% to $76.30 per barrel on Wednesday, and U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude also dropped 0.7% to $72.70 per barrel. While prices have fallen below the $80 per barrel mark in recent trading, they remain elevated compared to the roughly $70 per barrel seen in late February before the outbreak of the latest regional conflict.

    In currency markets, the U.S. dollar held steady against the Japanese yen, holding at 161.55 yen. The euro weakened slightly, trading at $1.1364, down from $1.1382 in previous trading.

    Looking ahead, U.S. investors are turning their focus to upcoming inflation data due Thursday, which will shape the Federal Reserve’s next interest rate moves. The May personal consumption expenditures price index (PCE), the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, is the key upcoming data point. Most economists currently predict the central bank will hold interest rates steady through the remainder of 2024, and is unlikely to implement additional rate hikes. Bond yields have remained elevated in recent sessions, as persistent inflation concerns have been amplified by global energy market shocks.

  • First of its kind queer museum in San Francisco Chinatown amplifies Chinese LGBTQ+ artists

    First of its kind queer museum in San Francisco Chinatown amplifies Chinese LGBTQ+ artists

    Against a backdrop of rising restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights across parts of the United States and systematic constraints on queer advocacy in China, a groundbreaking new cultural institution has opened its doors in one of the nation’s oldest Chinatowns, carving out a permanent public space for Chinese and Chinese diaspora LGBTQ+ artists to share their unfiltered stories.

    The brainchild of Chinese artist and longtime LGBTQ+ activist Xiangqi Chen, the OUT Museum celebrated its opening with a rainbow ribbon-cutting ceremony at the end of May 2025, timed intentionally to fall between Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Pride Month. Located directly across from the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum in San Francisco’s iconic Chinatown, the bilingual facility fills a long-standing gap in cultural representation for a community that has historically been sidelined and erased in both mainstream Chinese and Western queer spaces.

    For Chen, the museum’s launch in San Francisco is the culmination of a years-long journey that began when she first began organizing for LGBTQ+ communities in her native China. More than six years ago, while still based in Shanghai, Chen launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for what would eventually become the OUT Museum, drawing more than 2,000 individual donors. Even then, however, she knew the project could never come to fruition in her home country, where explicit public LGBTQ+ advocacy and expression face growing government restrictions. Chen, who ran a grassroots community center for lesbians in Shanghai for years, ultimately left China in 2022 after a widespread crackdown on queer organizing spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. She arrived in the U.S. on a J-1 visiting scholar visa at Georgetown University, and by 2024, her work caught the attention of San Francisco’s arts community following a high-profile exhibition at the city’s Asian Art Museum. That opportunity led to a residency with the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, which agreed to serve as an incubator for the new museum.

    Though the museum’s initial iteration is modest—housed in a single room, open only on Saturdays, and featuring fewer than a dozen works by creators from China and the global Chinese diaspora—its impact is already resonating deeply across local and national queer Asian communities. The debut exhibition showcases a diverse range of mediums, from fine art photography and self-published zines to interactive multimedia installations. One interactive piece invites visitors to use colored thread to trace their own personal journeys of gender and sexual self-discovery, turning passive viewing into collective connection. For Hong Kong-born artist Dixon Ngai, who contributed a hand-painted Chinese porcelain wine pot inspired by the classic Cantonese opera *Di Nü Hua (The Flower Princess)*, the OUT Museum fills a critical void that no generic queer art exhibition has addressed before. Unlike broader LGBTQ+ shows that often marginalize Asian voices, Ngai explained, the OUT Museum centers the specific, intersectional experiences of Chinese queer people, allowing their perspectives to finally receive the visibility they deserve.

    In the weeks since opening, Chen says she has been profoundly moved by feedback from an unexpected group: long-time Chinese immigrants to California, both queer and cisgender straight. Visitors have shared deeply personal stories, from a 60-year-old transgender man who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s specifically to access gender-affirming care that was unavailable in his home country, to a straight mother seeking resources to better connect with her adult gay son, who later emailed Chen to thank the museum for creating a space that helped her embrace her child’s identity.

    Helen Zia, a celebrated author, queer activist, and member of the OUT Museum’s advisory board, notes that these reactions confirm the institution’s core mission: elevating the visibility of Chinese, Chinese American, and Asian American LGBTQ+ people and affirming their place in both Asian American and broader queer history. Zia, who has organized for queer rights in San Francisco Chinatowns for decades, points to how dramatically community attitudes have shifted just in the last 20 years. When she distributed pro-marriage quality flyers in Oakland’s Chinatown in 2008, she faced regular harassment, including yelling and spitting from opponents, with thousands of protestors from Asian churches gathering weekly to condemn same-sex relationships. Later that same year, after the California Supreme Court struck down the state’s same-sex marriage ban, Zia was among the first same-sex couples to legally wed in the state. Even today, amid growing backlash against LGBTQ+ rights across the U.S., Zia says the museum’s existence sends a vital message: “See our humanity. Here’s the beautiful art that we create and imagine and contribute to the world.”

    For Chen, the contrast between the ability to create a public queer museum in San Francisco and the constraints on queer expression in China is stark. While the Chinese Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 2001, same-sex couples still lack legal access to marriage and adoption, and public queer advocacy remains heavily restricted. Chen explains that while subtle queer art exhibitions could occasionally be held in China as recently as the 2010s, shifting policy has eliminated even that limited space today; explicit identification as queer or open discussion of LGBTQ+ themes in public art is no longer permitted.

    Even in the U.S., LGBTQ+ rights face growing threats, from state-level bans on gender-affirming care to recent political attacks on Pride-related initiatives. Just weeks before the OUT Museum opened, San Francisco’s MLB team the Giants faced national controversy after players added anti-LGBTQ+ Bible verses to their official Pride Night caps, highlighting that even in traditionally progressive California, shifts in attitude are creating new tensions. Still, for the Chinese creators behind the OUT Museum, the social and political landscape of the Bay Area represents a transformative shift from the constraints they faced in China. Ngai summed up the community’s perspective: “Here in San Francisco, in California, we enjoy the air of freedom, there is equal human rights, there is security. So, we are very proud to be ourselves.”

    Chen is set to make her first appearance at the San Francisco Pride Parade this year, dressed as a warrior from Cantonese opera to promote the museum. For her, the opening of the OUT Museum is just the beginning, not the end of the project. Organizers plan to expand the exhibition roster and add more operating days in the coming months, with a long-term goal of growing the institution into a permanent, larger hub for Chinese queer art and activism. “We still have a long way to go,” Chen says.

  • UN warns Palestinian children ‘defenceless’ amid Israeli crackdown on NGOs

    UN warns Palestinian children ‘defenceless’ amid Israeli crackdown on NGOs

    On Monday, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a stark public warning: escalating restrictions imposed by Israel on independent human rights and humanitarian organizations operating across the occupied Palestinian territories have left Palestinian children growing more exposed and unprotected by the day.

    The 18 independent child rights experts that make up the committee, which operates under the umbrella of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR), issued sharp condemnation of Israel’s policy of labeling Palestinian civil society organizations as terrorist entities. According to the committee, this designation provides Israel with legal justification to disrupt critical life-saving and advocacy work, through tactics that include military raids on organization offices, travel bans targeting staff, personal financial penalties, threats of arrest, deliberate destruction of organizational documentation, and in multiple cases, threats of secondary sanctions against international partners that work with the targeted groups.

    While the committee’s latest warning did not name the specific groups referenced, the pattern of restrictions stretches back years. In 2021, Israel formally outlawed six leading Palestinian human rights and advocacy organizations, among them Defense for Children International – Palestine, Al-Haq, Adameer, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees – all of which have a decades-long track record of defending Palestinian children’s rights.

    More recently, new bureaucratic registration requirements imposed by Israel have threatened to force even more groups to end their operations at a moment of catastrophic humanitarian need in the Gaza Strip. On December 30 of last year, 37 international non-governmental organizations received official notification that their operating registrations would expire the following day. After a two-month grace period, the organizations would be legally required to cease all activity across Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. By January of this year, 53 international NGOs operating in the occupied territories issued a joint statement warning that these new measures would bring a complete halt to critical humanitarian programming.

    Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs defended the new restrictions publicly, claiming that organizations that failed to meet the country’s “security and transparency requirements” would have their operating licenses suspended. The ministry added that the restrictions also apply to any group that “refused to submit a list of their Palestinian employees in order to rule out any links to terrorism.” The 53 NGOs pushed back against this framing, noting that attempts to evaluate the impact of the deregistration policy using narrow, selective metrics fail to account for the on-the-ground realities of how humanitarian aid is actually delivered to vulnerable communities.

    Since a ceasefire took effect in Gaza on October 10, Israel has expanded this crackdown across all occupied Palestinian territories. One high-profile case involves Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF), which Israel moved to ban after the organization refused to hand over a list of its Palestinian staff. In February, 17 international aid organizations filed a petition with Israel’s Supreme Court to block the ban. While a temporary court injunction currently allows MSF to continue its operations, the Israeli government is still pushing for a permanent ruling to end the group’s work entirely.

    UN OHCHR emphasizes that these Israeli measures have left organizations unable to guarantee the safety of Palestinian children and families seeking life-saving support and legal advocacy, resulting in a situation where children are effectively left defenseless. “For more than three decades, these organisations have played a vital role in defending Palestinian children, including in the Israeli military courts, and in documenting grave violations against Palestinian children at the hands of Israeli forces,” the committee said in its statement.

    The committee warned that without the work of these independent groups, Palestinian children will be left even more exposed, and violations of their fundamental rights could continue without any accountability for perpetrators. The committee’s statement called on Israel to immediately lift all restrictions and barriers that target child rights defenders in the occupied Palestinian territories. It also urged the international community to use all available diplomatic and political tools to hold Israeli authorities accountable for these actions, and to prioritize the protection of Palestinian children’s fundamental rights.

    “Despite grave risks and limited resources, child rights defenders have continued to stand with Palestinian children and families in extraordinarily dangerous conditions,” the committee added. “They must be protected, not punished.”